Don’t Fear the Rhetoric

Loretta Lynch, the latest occupant of the US Attorney General’s office, assured a gathering of the Muslim Advocate, a legal advocacy group for Muslim rights, that her greatest concern has been the “incredibly disturbing rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric . . .. [T]hat fear is my greatest fear.”

Incredible as it seems, this grown woman, in one of the most powerful positions in government, identifies as her greatest fear that people are saying mean things about members of a group that has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people since 9/11, and hundreds in the past week alone. It is not the murdered and maimed that bother her, not the loss of life, the terrified survivors, the stunned witnesses afraid to resume their normal activities, etc. No, that’s tame stuff for our AG. What terrifies her is the very idea of other people saying things she doesn’t like.

When we talk about the First Amendment we [must] make it clear that actions predicated on violent talk are not American. They are not who we are, they are not what we do, and they will be prosecuted.

So any of you people who thought that actions had a particular nationality, and that that nationality was American, better think again. Actions predicated on violent talk will be prosecuted if committed by anyone who is not an African American.

Oops! Who said that?

Sure Black Lives Matter routinely engages in rhetoric inciting the murder of cops. And on several occasions that rhetoric has been followed by incidents of murder of cops. But it is the classic post hoc fallacy to connect the dots. Unless you’re talking about some angry ignorant white Rebublican yahoos bad-mouthing the peace-loving Muslims because of the massacre of an office full of people by their Muslim co-worker and his wife. Just look at the imaginary uptick in the number of hate crimes against Muslims!

And sure Louis Farakhan directly and explicitly called for his followers to “rise up” and kill white men, to “stalk them and kill them”. But nobody did it, for all we know. You know Louis –such a joker.